With Fantasy Premier League (FPL) live for 2025/26, we’re welcoming back our team of guest writers for the new campaign.

Here, three-time top 200 finisher Lateriser talks Wildcard windows, premium picks and staying flexible.

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Building a team involves so many decisions but the first couple of things that come to mind when doing so are:

a) Which premium picks are we looking at
b) Loosely, when is our window to Wildcard

PREMIUM PICKS: COVERING CAPTAINS IN GAMEWEEKS 1-6

The premiums we are looking at largely come down to captaincy and our perception of player/team. What price structure you go with also has a lot to do with the flexibility of squad as well. Let us break this down with the example of my current premiums.

In my current draft (which is far away from my final one), I have Mohamed Salah (£14.5m), Cole Palmer (£10.5m) and Viktor Gyokeres (£9.0m) in my team.

Let me explain the reasoning behind the same, starting with captaincy.

Salah is an opening-day monster who is a good option to cover Gameweeks 1, 4 and 5. His fixtures in Gameweeks 2 and 3 are not the best on paper, which is why it might be helpful to find captaincy options in those Gameweeks.

Palmer does a good job of covering Gameweeks 2 and 3. He’s got a decent run of fixtures at the start of the season, which really turns great from Gameweek 9 onwards.

What stands out in Gameweek 2, though, is that Arsenal face Leeds United at home. If I can help it, I want to have a captaincy option from the Gunners in that week, which is why I’m thinking of including either Gyokeres or Bukayo Saka (£10.0m). Now, Palmer against West Ham United (away) or Salah against Newcastle United (away) are perfectly good captaincy options. That fixture against Leeds just stands out. however.

HAALAND’S CASE FOR INCLUSION

Alternatively, if you look at Erling Haaland’s (£14.0m) fixtures, he’s a good captaincy option in most weeks except Gameweek 5. There’s certainly a case to make to start the season with him, should you choose to do it.

The real appealing match-up for Haaland, though, is the fixture in Gameweek 6 at home to Burnley. He is definitely the best captaincy option that week. From that point, he’s got a good run of fixtures and it would be very handy to have him from Gameweeks 6 to 10.

This is where the flexibility and team structure come in. By virtue of owning two of the most expensive midfielders in Salah and Palmer, your team automatically becomes a little more flexible. Simply put, if you’re cash isn’t distributed and is instead condensed amongst some of the premiums, it should take fewer moves to get to another heavy hitter. To make it even simpler: it is easier to sell Salah than to buy him.

That is why a punt on Gyokeres (it is very much a punt at this stage) is an idea I am considering right now, so that I have money constricted in my squad in three places. This makes it easier to distribute and buy a certain Norwegian in Gameweek 6 if I choose to go there.

Gyokeres can very much be Ollie Watkins (£9.0m), too, given his fixtures at the start of the season. We can’t confidently say that Gyokeres is nailed on to start the first two games (as of now), given the presence of Kai Havertz (£7.5m) and the fact that Gyokeres has joined training late. We don’t even know how quickly he’ll bed in with his new teammates.

INFORMATION OVERLOAD

Speaking of knowing things, I feel like there is so much information to obtain at the start of the season that it is important to be agile while picking your squad. Think about it: we’ve had more turnover at the top clubs than in any other season in recent memory.

Liverpool alone could have two or three new players in their front four and two new players in their back five. We don’t have reliable information yet on who the picks at Manchester City might be outside of Haaland, given the number of options there. We don’t know who is going to be on penalties between Saka or Gyokeres. Spurs have a new manager.

There is simply a lot to learn, especially with little to no pre-season for Manchester City and Chelsea. We don’t quite realise how much information is going to hit us in the first few weeks, which is why being flexible and not being handcuffed is important.

What do I mean by handcuffs? I refer to the Bench Boost. If I can help it, I really want to utilise my Bench Boost before I use my first Wildcard. If you haven’t already seen Pras’ chip strategy video, I highly recommend it:

WHEN TO WILDCARD?

Given the barrage of information that we might receive in the first few weeks, my approach to a Wildcard is to be agile between Gameweeks 6 and 13. Let’s have a quick look at the landscape:

Arsenal have a great run from Gameweek 7 onwards and Chelsea from Gameweek 9 onwards. While Liverpool and Manchester City have very appealing schedules from Gameweek 13, their matches from Gameweeks 8/6 respectively are not bad at all.

Given the number of expensive assets from these teams that we’ll need together, team value might be very important this season. In addition, to afford more of these players in your team, you will need to make sure you don’t spread your funds and spend them on the pitch.

While the teams to target on a Gameweek 13 Wildcard will be City and Liverpool, going early on these assets, given their fixtures, won’t be a bad idea.

That is why I have an agile approach to a Wildcard between Gameweeks 6 and 13 based on how confident I am with what I’ve learned in the first few Gameweeks and provided I’ve used my Bench Boost.

BENCH BOOST BEFORE WILDCARD

If I’ve used my Bench Boost before my Wildcard (which is what I really want to do), I will be able to go bottom price on my second ‘keeper, fifth defender and eighth attacker, which means I am not spreading my funds and spending them on the pitch instead. That will allow me to get a higher chunk of expensive assets from good teams. I can always spread funds around during AFCON once Salah leaves to help deal with the Christmas rotation.

This is the reason why I am looking at an early Bench Boost. Which week for that chip is something I will explore in a later article.

Hope you enjoyed reading this one!